Prairie high School baseball team outlasts Fleming in district play

The Mustangs defeated the Wildcats 8-3 on Tuesday at Sterling High School

Lane Goodman squares up on a ball for a hit in the final inning of Prairie's victory over Fleming on Tuesday. (Kyle Inman / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

The No. 5-seed Pawnee High School baseball team defeated the No. 4 Fleming Wildcats 8-3 in the first round of the 1A District 4 tournament at Sterling High School on Tuesday.

Fleming held a 3-1 advantage heading into the sixth inning of play, but the Mustangs gained the late momentum by scoring three runs to take a 4-3 lead.

After preventing the Wildcats from scoring any runs in the bottom half, the Mustangs added some insurance in the top of the final inning. Devin Littlefield came home to score after a passed ball to make the score 5-3. Walter Jordan scored after an error at shortstop before Xander Speicher hit a deep two-RBI double to put the score at 8-3. Littlefield struck out two batters in the bottom of the seventh inning before Jordan came in to record the final out.

Brandon Williams (left) of Fleming attempts to beat out a throw to first on Tuesday at Sterling High School. (Kyle Inman / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

"They played like we try to teach them," Prairie coach Dean Smock said. "We want them to stay aggressive all the time. Even if they make an out, they have to make a play."

The Mustangs were the underdog as the team lost 12-2 and 11-3 to the Wildcats in the only previous matchups between the two teams back on April 5. Many of the athletes for Prairie are involved in other activities leading to only two players being at practice on Monday. The team only played nine varsity games this season, less than all its competition. Smock said that he honestly didn't expect the team to perform as well as they did to open district play.

"They haven't fielded a ground ball for three or four days, but they're competitive and they play hard for me," Smock said. "They made all the plays and fielded all the ground balls today."

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The first-round victory in district play represented a milestone for the team and coach. Smock, who is in his fourth year at Prairie and previously coached at Pawnee, notched his first victory at the district level.

"I didn't know if I was ever going to win one of these," Smock said. "We've come close a couple of times, but most of the time we get whacked pretty good. We are a little bit better than people think we are, but to be honest, we are better than I thought we would be when the season started. We're pretty solid in a lot of areas."

Coach Dean Smock (No. 7) talks to the Mustangs' infield before an inning on Tuesday at Sterling High School. Smock earned the first district victory in his coaching career over Fleming 8-3. (Kyle Inman / Sterling Journal-Advocate)

For Fleming, the loss ended their season after an overall record of 6-9. The Wildcats entered the season without much experience outside of two seasoned seniors. Coach Anthony Serrato credited Prairie as a good team and said Smock does a great job with his teams. He described the Wildcats as a good bunch and said he's happy with the progress they made through the season, although he'd prefer to be playing on Friday.

"Obviously, this is not the outcome we wanted," Serrato said. "I reminded those boys that everybody is always trying their hardest. This is just the outcome; they had a few more things go their way and put the ball in play better than we did. We made a lot of errors, stuff that we don't do normally. It's always tough because you have seniors on your team and this is it, this is how they end their career. You know they want it and every coach wants their kids to win. We did a lot of things and got a long real well."

Prairie improved their record to 5-5 overall this season and will take on No. 1-seed Peetz High School in the semifinal round at Sterling High School on Friday at 9 a.m.

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